Gaming Ten Years On: Doom 3

It was the Crysis of it's day....primarily designed to show off the latest GPU techniques such as 'normal mapping', the Radeon 9800pro being THE card to own at the time.

But just like Crysis, it was style over substance.

 

Nice article I liked that one. I haven't honestly played it in the last 10 years but I know it scared 18 year old me a lot! I might give it a bash this weekend and see if I can traverse hell, I have also never gotten past the spiders!

 

I bought new GPU just because this game, the not so mighty GeForce 5900XT

 

Good grief, ten years? That thing's still on my "must play at some point" list.

Is this what old age feels like? Everything being recent? Aargh.

 

Yup, just bought the first XMEN dvd for my kids ... and realised it's already 14 years old.

 

Except Crysis is IMO a great game. The first half had areas you could replay over and over in many different ways depending on path taken and suit powers used. It was incredibly fun. Granted that ability tales off as the game goes on but how is a large playpen "style over substance"?

Here's where I really put my cards on the table. I don't think id have made a great game since the original Doom series (which still hold up well). Exception being Quake 3, it never grabbed me (UT was my preferred by a mile) but I can see its a very well made game.
My preference from the time, which I doubt will have changed much.

Duke 3D > Quake
Unreal > Quake 2
Unreal Tournament > Quake 3
HL2 > Doom 3

I've been replaying some of these old games in the DK2 and Doom (well, Brutal Doom) was extremely good fun. Quake 2 is so boring I haven't put more than an hour into it. Quake I couldn't get to work and HL2 is ****ing incredible.

I will try to play through each one this year, with the exception of Quake 2 as its a piss poor game.

 

I think that's being harsh on Crysis, the variety of approaches you can take and the (relative) intelligence of the opponents you face still hold up now. The last third of the game does fall into flat out Call of Duty mode somewhat, but it is fitting with the sudden appearance of an entire alien army right under your feet. Also the trip through the core is one of my favourite segments of gameplay in any game in history, particularly on Delta where it becomes all about survival.

 

wow those screenies look great imho - pretty sure I purchased this through steam one time but never played it - will defo take a look now

 

I've never completed Doom 3.

Every time I get to Hell, I get bored and leave it for another day, which never ever arrives; and I end up uninstalling it.

No regrets - it's about the same as Far Cry - really enjoyable for a while and then descending into a swirling vortex of utter sh!te.

 

I loved Quake 2!! Each to their own though I guess.

10 years have gone fast...I remember thinking that DOOM 3 was just too dark for me. I mean I know its supposed to be, but it was too much for my liking. I ended up increasing the gamma just so I could find my way around at times.

Back then I had the 9700 Pro (bought it before the 9800 came out) and it has certainly lived up to its legendary status. I finally changed it when it struggled with Assassin's Creed Brotherhood in 2010.

And it played Crysis...(kind of )

 

Hell was always the most exciting bit for me, after all those corridors. I wish more of the game was set in hell, or at least that there was more variety. I do remember enjoying using the relic every 5 or so souls I collected.

 

i remember loading up the leaked beta from some expo on my geforce 3 ti 200, the graphics were unbelievable

 

Crysis before alien was awesome and I agree with fix that the trip into the core was awesome. It went **** after that.

 

Hmm weird, I enjoyed it, but I thought it was needlessly long and drawn out. I thought the game actually finally picked up and got going right before you got to hell, when you got the lift down to the basement or something, and it was all just trashed.

Actually, I thought the expansion was more enjoyable. I think it had less of the slightly stressful dread and more action/better pacing. There was also more variety I think.

I'm not sure about the 9800, but I think that was quite old when doom 3 came out but was apparently amazing for quite a while before. Wasn't that around the geforce 4 which was kind of amazing in how it still played the new set of games that all came out around the same time. I think THE card for doom 3 was the geforce 6800gt (or ultra if you were "lucky" enough to find one.) I think ati was on the x800 at the time but were having crazy driver problems which meant while they held a small advantage in half life 2, in doom 3 they took until ages after release to get half way decent performance. I remember because I was trying to get some kind of 6800 and somewhere had sold out and tried to offer me the x800 or whatever but at the time it was really struggling with doom 3. hmm, thinking about it maybe the 9800 was only one generation older, as I think ati went x800, x1800, x2800 etc etc afterwards. Well, anyway, I feel old now.

 

Pah! I remember when Doom came out. I was there, man! I was there!

 

Greetings!

And taking your PC to a friends house to play Doom multiplayer via serial (?) cable? Those were the days.

 

Absolutely. It was magic.

 

Doom 3 was an excellent game. Not my all time favourite but worth a mention. Remember the intro scene? A simple video that the camera panned backwards on to reveal it was running IN THE GAME ITSELF? Awesome! As for the story being crap, it wasn't a masterpiece but it was functional and IIRC didn't have any holes.

 

I wonder if I should even ask if you played this in a dark room with a 5.1 system cranked up.